Fireflies in the Moonlight
by CrotakuShinobi
Summary: Rapunzel tries to cope with losing Cassandra. One night as she walks outside to clear her head she gets an unexpected visitor. There's angst at the beginning, but it gets better I promise.


**Fireflies in the Moonlight**

Its been a month since Cassandra's betrayal. Rapunzel, Eugene and the rest of the party, along with Adira and Edmund were making their way back to Corona. But the energy and enthusiasm they once had was gone. Especially when Rapunzel was concerned.

Eugene, Pascal, Max and Lance tried their best to cheer her up, but the just couldn't. They knew she was hurting, how could she not when she lost her best friend, but they tried their best to make her smile.

It worked sometimes. Like when Eugene would make some romantic gesture, like flowers accompanied by little kisses, Eugene and Lance's stories of their earlier days, Pascal doing goofy things, Max nuzzling against her here and there. But noting lasted long. The smile she gave would always disappear.

Even Adira and Edmund tried to make her feel better. Nothing.

Rapunzel felt like there was a part of her missing. She felt so empty. Empty, sad and confused. She thought Cassandra would always be by her side. She thought Cassandra would be someone she could always confide in, always rely on. She thought they would always be there for each other. Apparently she was wrong.

She tried to understand why this happened. She knows she hurt Cassandra badly, she knows she made mistakes. But she thought that their friendship would help them overcome everything.

Rapunzel found herself crying on her bed in the caravan. There wasn't a night when she wasn't crying since Cassandra disappeared. She just missed her so much. Usually they would talk before they went to sleep. Cassandra would be there for her if she had a nightmare. Sometimes Cassandra would do some of her fancy tricks with her sword and it would make Rapunzel laugh and smile. Now she had none of that. Eugene tried holding her at night sometimes. Telling her that it would somehow be okay, but she just couldn't stop crying.

Rapunzel decided to go for a walk. She didn't want to spend another night crying herself to sleep. Maybe the cool night air would help her.

She stepped out of the caravan and looked around. Eugene and Lance were nowhere to be seen so she assumed they went to sleep. Max and Fidella were also asleep. Max was sleeping very close to Fidella, his own way of comforting her. Pascal was in his own little bed inside of the caravan. Adira and Edmund were sitting next to the fire, Rapunzel knew they heard her sneaking out, but she assumed they also knew she needed some time away from everything.

Rapunzel made her way trough the trees, there was a slight breeze and loved the way it felt and the fresh smell of the grass. Rapunzel spotted a little firefly in the distance. It was like a small ray of sunshine in the darkness. She followed it.

Soon she found herself surrounded by a bunch of fireflies, flying around illuminating the trees and grass with their glow.

Rapunzel smiled as one of the fireflies landed on her hand.

"Hey there," Rapunzel brought her hand closer to her face, trying not to scare the little firefly, "you and your friends having trouble sleeping too?"

The firefly responded by flying in little circles and then up to the sky. She looked up and saw the moon glowing it the sky. It wasn't a full moon though. Only half full, kinda like she felt at this moment. But at the same time she found herself drawn to its glow.

"Still sneaking out at night Raps?"

_Raps._ There was only one person that called her that. She looked in the direction of the voice and saw Cassandra sitting on a tree branch. She had her black armor, blue hair and blue eyes. Rapunzel just stood there paralyzed.

"Come on Raps, I come all the way here in the dead of night and all you can do is stare. You in love with me or something?" Cassandra smirked and despite her appearance, still sounded like her snarky self.

It took Rapunzel a few seconds to snap out of her trance, "Wha-What? No, of course not!" she looked at the ground to try and hide her blush, but Cassandra still saw it. "I just, why are you here Cass? You betrayed me!"

While Cassandra didn't expect Rapunzel to welcome her back with open arms and throw herself at her, hugging her, she wasn't expecting her to cry. Her snarky smirk was replaced by a deep frown.

"Raps..." Cassandra jumped down from the tree branch and took a few steps towards her friend, "Raps, I did this to protect you. I know you're angry and you have every right to be. But when I found out that the Moonstone could hurt you or even worse, I couldn't let that happen. I promised to protect you and I did. I always will. Everything I've done, I've done to protect you."

One thing that Cassandra never expected was for Rapunzel to slap her. It didn't hurt her, not physically at least.

"Don't. Don't say that. I never asked for that. I never asked you to protect me. All my life I thought Moth- Gothel was protecting me, but all she did was keep me imprisoned. Eugene saved me from that. Then my dad tried to do the same thing when I came back to the castle. Even Eugene with his marriage proposal. You saved me then. And now you're doing the same thing that they did. I could have destroyed the Moonstone and all of this would be over. But you had to play the knight to the princess." Every word that she said hurt Cassandra more than anything else ever had. Rapunzel was angry, she knew that, but she didn't expect this.

Cassandra brought her hand to her cheek and rubbed it a bit, "You know I can't feel pain anymore right? At least not from stuff like that." Cassandra looked back at Rapunzel and took another step towards her. Rapunzel flinched. Cassandra looked... she wasn't sure what emotion that was, but she looked scary. Rapunzel never thought she would be scared of Cassandra, but in this moment she was.

With each step Cassandra took to wards her Rapunzel took a step backwards. Until she was backed up against a tree with Cassandra still coming closer to her. Would Cassandra actually hurt her? She wasn't sure at this moment and that thought scared her so much.

"I don't feel pain. The Moonstone made sure of that," Cassandra clenched and unclenched her once burned hand. "but, you... you always find a way to hurt me you know that?" Cassandra was now standing mere inched away from Rapunzel. Rapunzel was shaking, not a lot but enough for Cassandra to notice.

"And now," she reached out to touch Rapunzel's hand and Rapunzel pulled away and brought her hand to her chest, "now you're doing it again. How could you think that I would try and hurt you? Did you think I came all the way here to kidnap you or to kill you?" Cassandra never took her eyes off Rapunzel as she spoke.

Rapunzel didn't answer. She just looked away from Cassandra.

Cassandra sighed. "That. That right there. It hurts more than you know. I would never hurt you."

She reached out and placed her hand on Rapunzel's cheek. The moment she made contact tears started running down Rapunzel's face. Cassandra placed her other hand on Rapunzel's other cheek and turned her face towards hers. She did her best to wipe Rapunzel's tears away but they just kept coming.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I scared you. I'm sorry that I gave you the imprecision that I wanted to restrain you in any way." She leaned in and pressed her forehead against Rapunzel's, "I want the best for you. I want you to be happy. I want you to be safe. And I will sacrifice anything to make that happen. That is how much I care. That is how much I love you."

That's it. That's what did it. Rapunzel broke down. She threw her arms around Cassandra, pulling her close and cried into her chest. "I'm sorry! For yelling, for slapping you, for accusing you of wanting to control me, I'm so sorry Cass!"

Cassandra wrapped her arms around Rapunzel, "It's okay, I'm here now. We... We're gonna be fine. Eventually. So just try to calm down. I'm gonna stay here with you until you do." Cassandra whispered in an attempt to comfort her friend.

Cassandra filliped them around so that she was pressed against the tree. She sat down leaning against it with Rapunzel still clinging to her like a lost kid. She wrapped her arms around Rapunzel's waist there wasn't even a inch between them anymore.

"You know," Cassandra began trying to take Rapunzel's mind off this emotional turmoil, "I always dreamed of holding like this, but I never imagined it would be under these circumstances." She was running her hands slowly across Rapunzel's back in an attempt to sooth her.

"What did you imagine it?" Rapunzel asked, still very much upset but she sounded a bit better in Cassandra's opinion.

"Well I thought it would be more... romantic I guess. I thought that we would laugh and I would get to hold you like this and we could just talk to each other about stuff. I wanted this to happen, but I wanted it to happen when I confessed to you properly. This wasn't an ideal confession. I didn't even get you flowers." Cassandra heard Rapunzel chuckle at that.

"So how long have you felt this way?" Rapunzel seemed to have calmed down now but didn't make an effort to move away from Cassandra.

"Awhile now." Cassandra said, and it felt good to finally say those things out loud.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Cassandra couldn't see Rapunzel's face very well but she did catch a hint of a frown when she asked that question.

"You have Eugene. You don't need me, not like that. And I'm perfectly happy being by your side. That's enough. Still didn't stop me from dreaming." Cassandra placed her chin on top Rapunzel's head and waited for a response.

"Well I'm glad that you got to live your dream. Maybe it didn't happen the way you thought it would but honestly... that was really sweet of you. You put your emotions in that, and I could feel them. I know that it wasn't easy for you." Cassandra just hummed.

They stayed like that for a few minutes just enjoying each others company.

"Hay Cass?" Rapunzel broke the silence.

"Yeah?"

"I like you too."

"Well I would hope so. I know I made you really angry and sad but I'm glad you still see me as your friend." Cassandra chuckled as she spoke.

"No," Rapunzel pushed away from Cassandra and looked at her, "I like you Cass. Like, really like you."

It took Cassandra a few seconds to understand what Rapunzel meant. Her eyes widened and a blush spread across her face. "Oh. Um... But... You're... You and... What about Eugen-"

A kiss. She was cut off by a kiss. A kiss from Rapunzel. It was sweet and soft. And way to short for Cassandra's taste. As they separated Cassandra felt herself blushing more, and Rapunzel was blushing as well.

"Sorry. I just... I assumed that you wanted to... That's what Eugene and I do. And you know, people who like each other..." Rapunzel looked at the ground.

"I know what a kiss is Raps. But why would you do that? You're with Eugene. I know how much you two love each other. Please don't feel like you have to do this to spare my feelings. This is why I didn't tell you. I never want to be the reason you and Eugene split up, or for you two to split up in the first place." Cassandra never wanted something like that to happen. She might not be Eugene's biggest fan but she knows that he loves Rapunzel and that Rapunzel loves him.

"That's the thing. You're aren't doing any of that. I don't plan on leaving Eugene at all." Rapunzel responded.

Cassandra obviously wasn't following this train of thought, "But then... why did you kiss me?"

"Because I love you." Rapunzel chucked as she spoke.

"But you also love Eugene?" Cassandra really didn't get what was happening.

"Of course I do."

Cassandra was silent.

"I read it in a book." Rapunzel smiled at she obviously thought she was explaining things but she wasn't.

"Read what? I am very confused right now." Cassandra was growing a little frustrated.

"That people can be in relationships with more than one person. Love more than one person. Romanticly. And I love both you and Eugene romanticly." Rapunzel was seemingly very happy now, "I'm sorry it took me this long to realize it, but I love you Cass."

"Um... I... so you want to be in a relationship... with me and Eugene... at the same time? Is that what you're telling me?" Cassandra really wanted to make sure she understood this correctly.

"Yes. I love you both and I.. I don't see why this can't work. Sure it might take some getting used to. I know that you and Eugene don't get along all the time but, I think we can make this work. I'll talk to Eugene. What do you think?" Rapunzel waited for the answer.

Cassandra sighed. "I... I don't know. There's still so much I need to figure out. About my new powers and about myself. And the others, I'm sure they hate me now. And I think Eugene would hate me even more if he found out I was kissing his girlfriend behind his back."

"They don't hate you. They miss you Cass. We all miss you. And Eugene, okay yes, she might be a bit angry at first but I'm sure he'll understand." Cassandra was relieved to hear that her friends didn't hate her, despite how cold she might seem sometimes she cares about her friends.

"I can't."

Cassandra looked at Rapunzel and she could see the sadness on her face.

"What I mean," Cassandra quickly began to say, "I can't come back right now. There's a lot I still have to do. But," she placed her hand on Rapunzel's cheek and kissed her again, it was still chaste but a bit longer than the first one, "I'm not opposed to your idea. Especially if it means I can kiss you and not get called out for it."

Rapunzel grinned, "I would like that too. I'll explain everything to Eugene, and when you feel like it, you can talk to him too. I think you two are getting along a lot better then you used to."

"Don't remind me." Cassandra replied in her snarky voice.

"We'll make it work. I promise we'll make this work." Rapunzel wrapped her hands around Cassandra's neck.

"I hope so." Cassandra pulled Rapunzel into a kiss, and this one was a lot more passionate than the other two. Cassandra placed her hands on Rapunzel's hips and pulled her impassibly close to each other. Rapunzel was surprised at how warm Cassandra actually was. She thought that the black rock armor would feel cold, but it wasn't.

They separated when the need for air became too much. They were both grinning at each other.

"You're a really good kisses you know that?"

"Better than Eugene?" Cassandra asked teasingly.

"To early to tell." Rapunzel chuckled as he responded.

Rapunzel leaned against Cassandra's chest and let out a content hum. "Can we stay like this until morning?"

"What ever you want Raps."

And so they did. They didn't know what the future would be like but at least now they knew how they both felt. And they knew that as long as they still loved each other they could find a way to make this work.


End file.
